“This defeat is a bit illogical,” Ruslan Rotan after the match Slovakia (U-21) - Ukraine (U-21) - 3: 2

The head coach of the Ukrainian youth team Ruslan Rotan summed up the results of the first match of his team with Slovakia (2:3) in the playoff round of the qualifying round of the youth Euro 2023 (U-21).

“The impressions, perhaps, are not the best, because the defeat is a bit illogical, but at the same time, the main thing is that there is a second leg. Today we lost the duel, but we did not lose the battle. On September 27, the next match, which we must play better, first of all, psychologically.

I understand our young players who have burning eyes, but because of these nerves, we made mistakes that I have not seen in their performance during the entire qualifying tournament. Made enough mistakes today. We have time to prepare, recover, be sure to analyze this match in order to improve and show a result on the 27th that will take us to the Euro.

It is psychologically difficult to concede at the beginning of the first and second halves. If we take the first goal, then, perhaps, this is the logic of mistakes that the guys will not make in 10 cases out of 10. You can’t make mistakes like that. As for the second goal, I think the referee should treat us with respect. This is a pure foul, he was next to the ball... I don’t want to make excuses now, because we made enough mistakes, but I want a different attitude towards myself. We, as a country, tolerate a lot of bad things in order to react against the mistakes of the referee against this background.

But nothing, let's move on. The next match will be different, our team will be different, angrier. The only thing in which the Slovaks could prevail today was in character. And so it happened. They were very eager for this victory.

Artificial turf in Zilina? These are the tricks of the Slovaks, on which they played. They knew that in our championship no one plays on such fields. This is a kind of trap that we have fallen into today. This is very harmful to the players, injuries... Probably, this should be treated a little differently, especially since it's only September. I think that in Slovakia there are two or three fields with natural turf where you can have a fight.

Now we first need to restore the players both physically and psychologically, calmly analyze the match. On September 27, we must go out with another team, confident in the result, which will allow us to go further, and this is only a victory.

It is necessary to analyze the mistakes and talk with the players. Today we were a little nervous, which caught our eye. On the 27th, we must remove these nerves. The match will come, we will start from the performers who will. God forbid that there were no serious injuries, so far no one has complained. Whoever is in the best condition will play.

As for the behavior of the players in Slovakia, there was a referee on the field who should deal with provocations. I do not want to justify Vivcharenko, who received the third yellow card. These are emotions, we will have a serious conversation with him. But there was a provocation from the Slovak football player. Today, the referee, to be honest, did not like us. However, this football, I hope, will be better in the next match.

Why didn't Yarmolyuk play? He has not been with us for a long time, now he is training. Let's see before the second leg, everything is possible.

We are now going to the hotel for dinner, getting ready and hitting the road. It is good that Bielsko-Biala is located not far, 100 km. We return, spend the night, recover, and from tomorrow evening we begin to prepare for the second match, ”Rotan said after the game.